


Dirty Little Secret

by hellostarlight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Drunk on a Plane, F/M, Love is in the Air, Rated M for later Chapters, Reylo - Freeform, but Benjamin Organa Solo does, haha omg get it, rey is a funny drunk, the author does not know french, this is an au of an au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:49:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellostarlight/pseuds/hellostarlight
Summary: Convinced that her plane is about to crash, Rey Kenobi confides all of her life’s best kept secrets to the handsome stranger next to her…only to survive the flight with just a little turbulence and a big problem when she finds out that handsome stranger was her CEO.M rating for later chapters!
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 23
Kudos: 64





	1. Bad Luck

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hello there, welcome to the trash pit. We’re all a bit mad here but we enjoy it.
> 
> This fic is actually based on the movie “Can You Keep a Secret?” but I plan on changing a bit of the plot. I LOVE writing this story and so I really hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. 
> 
> A lovely shout out to my wonderful beta and gal pal who has oh so bravely chosen to stick with me through this mess! Couldn’t do it without ya, Liv 💙

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey royally effs up the most important day in her career thus far...

Folders and papers of various kinds are flying from Rey’s hands as she flings her tired and aching body up the stairs. Today was supposed to be the day that she made an impression on the associates at First Order Enterprises. She absolutely had to nail this account in order to be considered for her promotion.

But if the way her morning has gone so far was any indication of how the meeting with Mr. Snoke would play out, then she was absolutely screwed.

The bad luck started when she woke up thirty minutes later than she was supposed to with a blinding headache and the sound of her morning alarm going off underneath her bed. To make matters worse, said alarm, her phone, was on less than ten percent battery as a result of its night spent under the bed instead of on the charger. How on earth that happened she’ll never know.

Okay well maybe she had a suspicion that she shouldn’t have thrown back so many tequila slammers last night, but it was only to shake a little bit of the nerves off. She hadn’t planned to wake up completely wrecked and late! She’s regretting that decision now. Tremendously.

It progressively got worse whenever she realized that she had packed the wrong pair of bloody shoes, and now had to show up at one of the most prestigious offices in New York with her hair half hanging down in her face and in her dirtiest pair of trainers that she owns. So much for making an impression.

She found out later, however, that perhaps her running shoes would come in handy as she sprinted across the city, it was getting later by the minute. Upon arriving at the building that housed the First Order, she pushed her way through the door and nearly knocked a man down in the process.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry!” she yelled behind her, in her vicious pursuit of the lift to the top floor.

When she reached said lift, she was greeted with a dreaded sign that read in big black letters:

**ELEVATOR OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE TAKE STAIRS.**

_Fuck._

She was completely out of breath by the time she reached the top landing. Due to the long journey up the stairs, she realized she probably looked like total crap. She had barely had any time to throw herself together this morning and make herself look slightly presentable. Rey reached down and tucked her hanging blouse into her skirt and tried not to drop her load of paperwork in the process.

She stood up taller. Prouder. She might look like a mess and a half but dammit she was still going to march in there and do the hell out of her job to convince this man that signing with Falcon would be the best decision he could make for his company.

Rey wiped the sweat from her forehead and braced herself as she walked confidently into the conference room where Mr. Snoke and who she assumed were his most trusted associates were sitting, and unfortunately, waiting for her presentation. She was very late. Thirty-two minutes to be exact.

“Ah, Miss Kenobi, how good of you to join us at-” he checked his watch “-10:17 this morning. I could’ve sworn I booked this little engagement with your boss at 9:45. I must be mistaken.”

_Damn. He’s going straight for the kill shot._

“Mr. Snoke,” Rey began, “I am so sorry for my tardiness. A series of most unfortunate events have occurred this morning and I want you to know that my actions do not at all reflect my company or our product in any way and I–”

“Don’t assume that I feel any sympathy towards your unfortunate circumstances, nor do I plan to hold this against you personally. I will however begin to consider not signing your contract at the end of this meeting if I am not shown a product within the next few minutes.” His gaze made her extremely uncomfortable as he eyed her up and down, likely judging her for her slapped together ensemble and her muddy tennis shoes.

She cleared her throat and grinned sheepishly. “Oh yes, absolutely. So sorry.” She scrammed herself into the door and haphazardly dropped all of her belongings onto the end of the conference table. “Right, well, let’s get started.” She dumped her assortment of papers onto the hard surface and began sorting through it, breathing heavily as she went.

_Where are those fucking stats?_

Showing up to the most important client meeting of her career without all the stocks, prices, and customer counts would surely be the end of her.

“Any day now would be just fine, Miss Kenobi,” he scoffed, “I don’t have all day to put up with these kinds of shenanigans.”

 _Aha!_ She stopped her ruffling after she found exactly what she was looking for and looked him dead in the eyes, her confidence back.

“I assure you, Mr. Snoke, that there are no more shenanigans. I assume that you have reviewed the numbers that we have sent to you, and I hope you agree that Kessel Coffee would be a perfect asset to your clientele’s line of resources. At Falcon we pride ourselves in–”

“Yes, I know that your little gang of bandits seems to be very proud of themselves lately. A little too proud if you ask me and I am not impressed.”

Rey stood there, dumbfounded. Her eyebrows shot straight up, full of confusion.

_What the hell?_

She was barely twenty seconds into the presentation she had spent hours perfecting and he wasn’t even going to let her bloody try?

She stuttered, “Mr. Snoke…I can’t…well, I don’t exactly understand what you mean by—”

“Well, here’s what I need you to understand, Miss Kenobi. After rebranding, it seems that these products are just no longer compatible. And our…our clientele, they don’t like your prices and we simply cannot–”

“Sorry, umm…I’m sorry,” she raised her hand as to justify interrupting him. Even though he had interrupted her plenty. “I don’t want to…just to do…I’m just uh…can you um, recap this situation for me? I haven’t even hardly started.”

She was going to try to be as diplomatic as possible about this, even though his stuffy attitude was making it very hard for her not to strangle the haughtiness right out of him.

He just stared at her for a moment. And the room stood at a standstill, the tension heavy.

“We. Don’t. Like. Your. Prices. It seems fairly simple to me. We’ve reviewed them, as you said, you did send them along prior to your arrival, and I’m glad you did because that makes my job a lot easier.”

_What a dick._

“I’m sorry, my pricings? I don’t…but I…I don’t price anything.” Rey said with her best attempt at a smile. God why was she struggling so hard with this? She was grasping at every straw she had left, and she was certainly running out of them fast.

Snoke slapped both hands down on the table and stood abruptly. “Well, okay then. We’re done here.” He gestured to all the other snot nosed gentlemen in the room, who looked between him and Rey awkwardly.

She threw her hands in front of her in defense. She really needed this deal to work out. There was no other option.

“Hold on…I have just a few points to make and I promise you won’t regret hearing them.” Her eyes were pleading with him now.

The old man sat back down in defeat and gestured for her to continue.

Okay… wow. She wasn’t expecting that. Now she actually had to come up with something to say to him. She exhaled sharply and enthusiastically reached for his cup of coffee in front of her, with Falcon’s bright green logo on the front it, and pointed at it.

“Kessel Coffee!” she started off a little too loudly, “is Falcon’s most prized product. It’s an organic and energizing blend, and Falcon is a marketing phenomenon. The character of our company and its founder is known around the world. I know you’ve tried it as I can see here with this mug full of it!”

He only shook his head at her, but she continued mercilessly. “We are offering First Order Enterprises the exclusive opportunity of a lifetime to join with this premium world-wide brand! When customers buy Kessel Coffee, they expect nothing but the very best because we are the best!” she sighed, taking a deep breath, “I don’t think you should pass this up, Mr. Snoke, I really don’t.”

Now she was definitely proud of herself. She smiled up at him as if to express the achievement she felt.

Her accomplishment was overtaken as he clapped slowly, menacingly. He was mocking her. “Excellent speech, truly. A really good speech.” He paused. “I hate to burst your bubble here, Miss Kenobi but have you seen our clientele? Are you aware who benefits most from our product partnerships?”

When she looked at him quizzically, he pointed to a framed poster on the wall behind him. She turned her gaze from his beady eyes to the image of a man, a very old man, sitting in a lounge chair, half naked and tanning in his front yard with a very large straw hat on his head.

She grimaced at the image as he continued. “The older population is who buys our products. Not to say we’re proud, but we’re definitely not ashamed. And the fact is, they don’t like the absurd prices! I don’t care if it’s organic or energizing, and they certainly won’t either. It’s all about making a buck, Miss Kenobi, and Kessel nor Falcon will not do that for us. We’re done here.”

He stood up again and started to work his way towards the door, but nevertheless, she persisted, trailing after him into the hallway with his piping hot cup still in her hand as if to further prove her point.

“When people choose Kessel, they’re making a statement. Choosing to be extraordinary. And I’m asking First Order to make that same statement,” she flailed her arms, “by signing with Falcon and–”

_Shit._

She gasped and began to apologize profusely as she noticed what she had just done. Perhaps the absolute worst mistake of her entire life so far. She brought her eyes up to Snoke’s and he followed her gaze down to his designer suit which was now positively sopping wet with his very hot beverage. He definitely was not impressed with the product now.

“Mr. Snoke, I–” she began, but stopped once she realized she really had nothing to say that could fix this. She put her eyes down, “I’ll um, see my way out now, I suppose.”

“Yes, I think that would be appropriate,” his tone was dripping with disdain.

She shrugged, and offered him back his coffee mug, as a sort of peace offering.

“Keep it,” he turned his back on her and walked away with purpose.

 _Double shit._ Fuck the promotion. She was definitely going to be fired for this.

She turned on her heel and strode back into the now empty conference room to gather her things, mind reeling at what had just happened and praying to whatever god was out there that she didn’t lose her job. With blurred vision, she shuffled all her papers back into her manila folders and willed not to let the tears fall onto all her hard work. Her useless time and efforts.

“Miss Kenobi?”

She stiffened as she heard the voice of a man much younger than Snoke, and seemingly far more agreeable, pleasant even.

“Umm, sorry…yes?” she answered weakly and wiped at her eyes, keeping her back to the voice.

 _Failure._ She was an absolute failure.

“My name is Dopheld Mitaka, miss. I just wanted to say that I think your presentation was excellent,” he whispered, as if he wasn’t supposed to be speaking with her. “You’re very brave. I’ve never seen anybody stand up like that to the boss. I admire you so much for that and I just wanted you to know that. I could never be as brave as you.”

She sniffed and turned toward him, with all her belongings in her arms. “If by brave you mean foolish, I couldn’t agree more.” She met his eyes, hoping he couldn’t see her weakness there. “But thank you…for the uh, compliment that is.”

 _An awkward failure_. That’s what she was.

The young man set his mouth in a fine line and nodded his goodbye at her. She strode past him down the hall only to see that of course, the kriffing elevator was now fully functional and working. She rolled her eyes and approached the queue to enter, but once she got to the front, she realized that there was no more room for her.

One man mouthed “sorry” to her, and another advised her to take the stairs.

The bloody stairs.

Rey was cursed, she decided. Bad luck tended to follow her and now it was creeping in from her personal life to her professional one.

Fucking fabulous.

As she began her dreaded descent down the staircase, she felt her cell phone vibrating from the pocket of her skirt. That was strange. The only people who ever really call her are her roommates, Rose and Paige, (especially Paige when she needed someone to pick her up from some bar completely wasted but didn't want her sister to find out) but they both knew she was in a meeting this morning. Or Finn, her work best friend, but no, he had been helping her prep for this for weeks and definitely knew about it. Who could it be?

She looked at her screen and groaned when she read AMILYN AKA BOSSLADY on the front of it.

_Jesus Christ, news travels quickly around here._

She put the blasted vibrating device back into her pocket and decided that she could stand to wait to be fired. First, she was going to make sure she spent the entire flight back to Chicago completely and utterly wasted, which meant she needed to find the nearest bar immediately.

Add it to her long list of flaws. Nobody needed to know. It would just have to be her dirty little secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you liked it! 
> 
> Also I’m on tumblr @hellostarlight :)


	2. Turbulence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey gets drunk on a plane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here we go with round two of this *grins shyly* I've never posted more than one chpater of a story before so I hope I'm good at writing sequels lol
> 
> Let me know what you think :)

Rey was slumped in one of the crappy little faux leather chairs in the airport lounge bar, way past tipsy at this point. The very nice bartender had gently cut her off after she had four of her usual “whiskey, cut the rocks” and handed her a glass of water. He seemed to have her best interests in mind, which warmed her heart tremendously. It felt good to be taken care of. Even if it was by a middle-aged man who worked in a bloody airport bar, whom she would never see again.

She was pathetic.

She swirled her water around and stared down in the half empty glass, remembering what got her to this point in the first place. Not only did she have to face Amilyn’s wrath tomorrow, but Rey Kenobi absolutely _hated_ flying. Dying on an airplane was on her list of greatest fears, ever since she had watched her first and only episode of that television show “Lost”, and she shuddered at the thought of having to board her own airplane in mere minutes. Of course, nobody but Rose knew that she had felt this way, thank the Maker.

Rey reached into her pocket to retrieve her vibrating phone, how it was _still not dead_ after at least three hours she will never know, and smiled at the caller ID.

“Hi,” she sighed dreamily into the speaker.

“Hey babe, how’d it go?” Rose replied on the other end, the sound of some very loud Taylor Swift song in the background.

Rey groaned “Argh, it was a certified disaster. You do realize this is my third job in four years? I absolutely cannot afford to lose this one too.”

It was at that exact moment that Rey had made awkward eye contact with a woman in a nice blue suit, about five yards away. The woman showed sympathy in her eyes, but Rey just smiled slightly and then drew her attention back to her best friend on the phone.

_That was weird._

“Sweetie, I know,” Rose sighed, “I’m sorry, I really am.”

“And to make matters worse, I’m boarding soon.” Now Rey was just pouting. It was a side effect of drunk Rey, her friend had probably already recognized it by this point in the conversation.

“Hey! Remember what I told you, sunshine. Thousands of people fly every day. You’ll be fine. Besides, it sounds to me like you’re plenty distracted and won’t even notice.”

_Ah. So, she has noticed after all._

“Okay then, you tell that to the shitty writers who let “Lost” air on television and then get back to me on your opinion.” Rey snorted back into the phone. “And besides, I’m not drunk yet, just a little buzzed off the top.” She made a buzzing noise for effect.

“Okay, hot stuff I get your point. Now please try to make it home all in one piece and I’ll see you later.” Her friend scolded at her lightly.

Rey clicked her tongue, “bye best friend. OH, and by the way, Armie is picking me up from the airport so there’s no need for you to come unless you just miss me that much.”

The girl on the other end of the line snorted. “Ha, yeah, that’s a definite no. That guy still gives me the creeps, dude. I don’t know why you’re with him, you’re so much hotter than him anyways, you could do way better.”

Rey just hummed in reply and then pressed the red button on her screen. She knew how Rose - how all her friends, really - felt about her boyfriend of seven months but Rey had a bad habit of settling even when she wasn’t really happy. Perhaps it wasn’t fair to Armie, but she had been trying to convince herself that he was good for her, and that always settled her conscience when she was sober. Drunk Rey, however, felt things and _said_ things that maybe she shouldn’t.

A woman over the PA broke Rey from her thoughts “Last call for boarding for Flight 2180 from New York to Chicago. Last call for boarding, ladies and gentlemen.” 

“Bloody hell,” Rey muttered to herself as she stood up, stretched her joints, and sauntered over to return her glass to the nice bartender man.

“Take care of yourself, kid.” He muttered after her as she turned from the end of the counter. She turned and gave him a pathetic wave and her best attempt at a smile.

Sober Rey probably would have had the decency to reply to him, give him a nice and hearty thank you, but drunk Rey probably would’ve ended up crying at his feet for being so nice to her, so instead she chose to walk away.

 _To my own certain death_ , her inner monologue chimed in.

* * *

“Hi,” Rey muttered grumpily to the flight attendant at the entrance of the plane.

“Hi, honey, how are you doing?” the nice lady responded.

Rey met her eyes. She had a very kind gaze and seemed genuine when she asked how she was doing, although she probably really didn’t want to know.

Rey shrugged slightly and presented the woman her ticket. “I’m 32C.” she squeaked weakly, the scent of alcohol probably very strong on her breath. If the woman noticed, she certainly didn’t act like she was affected.

The woman – her nametag read _Nancy_ \- took the slip of paper from Rey’s hands and sighed gently. “It hasn’t been your day, has it?”

Rey stared at Nancy for a long second before shaking her head no. It had not been her day, her week, or her _year_ for that matter. But Nancy didn’t need that much information, so she kept her mouth shut.

The flight attendant smiled at her, her eyes sparkling along with her white teeth, “what about an upgrade to first class, hmm?”

Rey finally put two and two together as she recognized Nancy from the crappy airport bar.

_Oh god._

Now she was just humiliated because this woman heard her conversation with Rose and knows that Rey had probably just screwed up bad enough to lose her job. Deciding to swallow her pride and trade a little embarrassment for a HUGE upgrade, Rey nodded.

“Oh, umm, yeah okay,” she managed to get out, slightly shrinking in on herself.

“Seat 2A, just right over here to your left.” Nancy continued to smile at her.

“Thank you so much.” She hoped her gratitude showed in her voice.

Walking slightly down the aisle, she took in her surroundings in the first class cabin. Although she definitely does not belong up here with all these fancy people talking into their fancy iPhones and typing on their fancy computers, she will take anything good that the universe is willing to grant her.

Her eyes lit up brilliantly at the plush seats and all the glorious leg room she would have. She plopped down into her new and very own _first class_ window seat and let out a deep breath that she didn’t realize she was holding. She tried to check the time on her phone, but when she clicked on the home button, she realized that her phone had finally run out of battery life. Just like she had on this day. What a wonderful representation of her life.

The man offering alcohol soon broke her out of her thoughts. “Champagne miss?” he asked her.

“Yes, yes absolutely,” Rey replied to him immediately. Her hands thrown out and fingers stretching in a “give me” motion. “Thank you,” she added, as he nodded to her politely.

_God, she could get used to this._

She looked out her window into the bright day and groaned at the sun gleaming in her eyes, only making her headache worse. Or perhaps that was all the alcohol she has consumed within the last twelve hours.

She never thought there would come a day where she would be grateful for Paige's constant preaching in college on how to hold down “the hard stuff” but Christ, she was praising all of her teaching methods now.

There was some overhead muffling on the PA about overhead bags and shit like that, but Rey was not paying attention. What did get her attention, however, was one of the flight attendants showing a man to his seat next to her.

“Your champagne sir” she heard as the woman in the blue uniform handed a him his own glass of the liquid bubbles. 

Rey looked up and was starstruck with a sight far more brilliant than the blasted sunshine outside her window. Said man had just happened to be extremely good looking and smelled positively delicious. A dude that looked and smelled just like a certifiable snack. His dark hair was long and curled on the ends but kept tame under a baseball cap that he was wearing. He didn’t look like he belonged in first class either, sporting a grey t-shirt and jeans, a jacket flung over his right shoulder. His eyes were the color of the whiskey she’d been guzzling all night, and she felt like she was drowning in them. Literally and metaphorically.

 _Damn._ How’d she get so lucky? Maybe the universe was actually feeling sorry for her and this man was consolation for that fact.

He chuckled next to her, “Well cheers I guess.”

 _Ah, yes!_ The beautiful stranger speaks. And his voice was so deep and gorgeous that drunk Rey was imagining all the different kinds of things she’d like him to say to her.

“Cheers!” she grinned and over-enthusiastically held up her flute to clank with his. 

He looked up at her, confused, before realizing and motioning to his Bluetooth headphones in his ears. “Sorry, it’s…” he pointed to his cell phone, “I’m on the phone.”

 _Great._ Looks like she was still cursed. She quickly tore her gaze from him, completely humiliated for what felt like the fifteenth time that day, and took a large gulp from her champagne glass.

As if it couldn’t possibly get any worse, she hears him talking again next to her, except this time she knows not to reply.

“Oh yeah, sorry I’m here.” A pause. “Yeah no, somebody thought I was talking to them.” He chuckled.

_Argh._

“Fuck, why are you like this?” Rey whispered to herself, half hoping he didn’t think she was talking about him. The other half of her wouldn’t be surprised at all because that’s just how this kriffing day is going for her.

She scrunched up her nose in distaste for herself and tried not to look back at him, but she couldn’t help one last tiny glance over at him. This time was different though, because he was looking back at her and his whiskey eyes were pulling her in for the kill. His gaze was intense, but not hard. She let herself drown in it and prayed she didn’t seem like some psycho but before she could overthink it, he looked away and continued to carry on his phone conversation.

* * *

Rey hated flying. She really, _truly_ despised flying. If you asked sober Rey what she hated about flying, she would give her recount in great detail of the plane crash on “Lost” and explain that, that is the reason for her terrible dread of airplanes. Drunk Rey, however, had very different opinions.

Drunk Rey was positively bored out of her mind on this airplane ride. She wasn’t even thinking about her fear of the plane crashing. She was just worried about her immediate boredom. Her handsome stranger had pulled out a puzzle book, of all fucking things, and was lost in what seemed like deep thought as he wrote a seven in one of the sudoku squares. He was not paying attention to her, and honestly, she didn’t blame him, but some part of her still felt rejected.

 _He probably doesn’t talk to creepy girls who ogle him on airplanes._ Jesus, she needed to get her act together.

Her feet were elevated onto the back of the seat in front of her, the man occupying it fast asleep and not aware of her bright orange toes inches away from his face. She was humming to herself and swirling her water in her hands – the attendant cut her off too, because apparently there was a limit on how many champagne glasses one is allowed on a flight – when that same attendant came up to their row.

“Excuse me ma’am,” he pointed to her crossed ankles on top of the seat, “that’s completely unacceptable,” his high-pitched voice squeaked at her.

“Oh sorry. I’m sorry.” she looked up at him and giggled. That’s another thing about drunk Rey. She’s giggly, and inappropriately so.

Like that one time when Armie’s orange tabby Millicent had accidentally got let out of his apartment and was missing for weeks. He insisted they have a funeral for her, so being the good girlfriend that she is, Rey made it happen. Although they had no body, and no place to formally hold a ceremony, it was a beautiful rooftop gathering with some work friends that Rey had bribed into coming. She might have accidentally had a little bit too much to drink, and so when her boyfriend was giving his eulogy to his dead cat and Poe whispered something about his hair matching the cat, Rey absolutely lost it in a fit of giggles. Armitage didn’t speak to her for three days after that incident.

“Uh, good evening sir,” that same annoying flight attendant addressed her seat partner from the side of his seat.

“Hi,” the deep and beautiful baritone voice replied, closing his sudoku book, marking his page with his pencil.

“Oh, hi.” the squeaky voice repeated back to him, his hand coming up to run his fingers through his hair in a very obvious flirtatious manner

Rey rolled her eyes and sat up further in her seat, fully intending on eavesdropping on their conversation. The beautiful stranger was _hers_ to ogle, not this man. Besides, he should be worried about doing his job and not flirting with the passengers.

He cleared his throat and continued. “Oh, would you um, be interested in the new business class lounge at JFK?”

_Pfft. How pretentious was that._

“Oh, no thanks, man I’m–” the pretty man never got to finish his sentence because there was a sudden jerk of the plane and the annoying attendant stumbled where he was standing.

Rey didn’t even have time to think about the karma that man deserved for trying to steal her airplane boyfriend. She yelped in her seat out of surprise and slapped her hands down on the arm rests on either side of her seat. Glasses were rattling and there were hushed whispers throughout the cabin.

“Is that normal?” she half squeaked, half moaned. It definitely didn’t feel like normal, and her heart started to pound with the fear that maybe this plane really was going to crash and take her down with it. She was having some bad luck today after all.

That’s when the PA system came on over the speakers and the captain alerted the passengers, they would be experiencing some slight turbulence, and to please fasten their seat belts until further instructed.

Another huge jolt reverberated, and Rey’s seat shook. She was shaking too, but it’s not like she could help it. This was exactly how every nightmare of hers had ended. Her stomach dropped when bags started to fly out of overhead bins. She had never experienced anything like this, and it was horribly frightening.

She shrieked again as she spilled her water all over her skirt and then cursed when she realized that it had splattered all over the pretty man next to her too.

_Shit. Twice in one day. REALLY?_

“Hey,” his calm voice leaned in to whisper in her ear, “It’s just some turbulence. Everything is gonna be alright, I promise.”

She wanted to believe him, she really did, but drunk Rey didn’t hold back her thoughts, and her fear certainly wasn’t helping either as she grabbed his right hand and squeezed as hard as she could, gesturing dramatically with the other.

“Do you really think that they’re going to tell us ‘this is the end, you’re gonna die’? NO! They’re not. It would be a mad house in here. They never tell you before you’re about to die and we’re definitely about to die. This is it. This is really it.” As she got the words out, she realized she was crying.

Another side effect of drunk Rey. Wow…she really should not have drunk so much before this flight.

“I’m too young to die, I can’t die yet! I’m only twenty-four,” she shrieked. “I haven’t done anything with my life. I haven’t done bloody anything!”

The man next to her widened his eyes at her panicked hollering but didn’t try to shut her up. He was listening to her intently. She sniffled and continued on with her spill.

“I haven’t climbed a mountain. I never had kids. I never got a TATTOO. Every bad bitch that I know has a tattoo and I didn’t get the chance,” she sobbed. “I don’t even know if I have a g-spot!” she yelled into his ear.

“Excuse me?” The beautiful man interrupted her, but she ignored him.

“I don’t even think I have one of those!” then she paused. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?” She swallowed.

He stared at her, oddly, and probably wondering what the hell she had been smoking before she got on this plane, but he patted her hand and reassured her. “It’s okay, go on. I’m listening.”

And on she went as the shaking continued.

“My career is an absolute joke! I just fucked up my first big meeting and I’m not gonna get my promotion…and there’s this AWFUL girl named Gwen,” she droned, “and she got the promotion over me last time, so then I got my revenge on her by pouring orange juice over her stupid spider plant when she’s not looking.” She let out a small giggle at that one, but she was in no mood for laughing.

His eyebrows rose, and she kept talking, the tears now streaming down her face.

“You know, I wish I knew what it was like to pee standing up. I wish I knew what it was like to have a penis, you know? Oh well yeah you do know.”

Before he could reply to that, she screamed as another jolt shook them. She just kept rambling, talking faster as she went.

“Every time I hear ‘Demons’ by Imagine Dragons it makes me cry every single time and I don’t know why,” she hollered, “even _thinking_ about it makes me cry.”

She stopped momentarily to wipe her nose from dripping everywhere, and she was sure that if she didn’t seem completely crazy before, that this poor man might try to commit her if they survived this plane crash.

“Oh, and my boyfriend Armitage…by the way who fucking names their kid Armitage? What the hell, what kind of a name even is that!” He actually laughed at that confession and his eyes urged her to continue. “Anyways, Armitage is obsessed with jazz music and he always drags me to these stupid concerts, and I hate every stupid minute of it and I always pretend to like it, but I hate jazz. I really do.”

She dropped her head onto his shoulder. “I HATE JAZZ.” She sobbed all over his soft grey t-shirt.

He rubbed at her arm comfortingly and she felt shivers run down her spine as she cried into his shoulder something, she never thought she would admit out loud.

“And Armie also does this really weird thing with his tongue…but I told him it was amazing and that my whole body kind of opened up like a flower, you know,” she sniffled and gestured with her hands, “but then he asked me WHAT KIND of flower, so I said begonia, and I don’t even know what a kriffing begonia looks like! Who does that?”

She wasn’t even making any sense at this point, but the word vomit wouldn’t stop. She was letting it all come out. She was telling him things that she had never even said out loud before. Things about work, her friends, and even that _thing_ that she swore to Finn that she would never repeat.

“And the coffee that the office provides is literally _poison_. You would think that a company that markets some of the best coffee in the fricking world would have the decency to serve it’s employees more than a cup of dirty rag water,” she whined, and then leaned in to him and whispered, “that’s why Finn and I sometimes use the excuse that we’re ‘crunching numbers’ when we’re actually sneaking out around the corner for the real strong shit, you know?”

Drunk Rey at her finest.

She didn’t even fully realize why she was telling him all of this. Last chance to let it be known, she guessed. But the final straw was when she heard herself say the one thing her therapist had been trying to get out of her for years now.

“I just don’t think I’ve ever really been in love and I don’t think anyone has ever loved me,” she gasped out, panicked that she just said it out loud.

 _Oh shit_. She might not ever see this man ever again but that was seriously embarrassing. It’s a good thing this plane was about to crash and burn because she never wants to face the reality that this is her pathetic life.

“I just want, like this huge, amazing, romance like, this… _earthquake_. Like if I could _just_ …” her voice carried higher and higher at the end and she was even using tiny hand motions to emphasize her point.

“Excuse me, umm…miss?” she heard him whisper to her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you wanna tell me something too?” she questioned him, suddenly feeling guilty that she had just spilled some of her deepest secrets to this stranger on their descent to death but hadn’t given him a chance to get anything of _his_ chest.

She looked up into his eyes from her place on his shoulder, and he smiled at her. “Um. No. Actually, uh, we landed.” He gestured behind him at the passengers from the back exiting towards the front.

 _“WHAT!”_ she nearly jumped out of her seat and hit her head on the low ceiling in the process. “Are you kidding me?” she hollered, maybe a little bit too loudly into his ear.

He reeled back and then explained to her what happened, that the turbulence had stopped fifteen minutes ago. Her mind was spinning, her heart was pounding.

“It seemed to sober you up pretty fast, too,” he joked with her.

_How fucking embarrassing._

She covered her face with her hands and groaned. “Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed, why didn’t you stop me?” she asked him, peeking through her hands through the hole she made with her fingers. She felt like dying right then and there. Perhaps a plane crash would’ve been a better option then the shame she was facing right now.

He shrugged. “Seems like you had a few things to get off your chest.”

Rey’s eyes widened at that. Oh shit. She had a lot of things to get off her chest apparently. A lot of super personal and embarrassing things that she hadn’t even shared with Rose, but she felt the need to share with a complete stranger on a plane ride?

Who _does_ that shit?

With a sudden adrenaline rush, she stood and tried to push by him, “Okay. Okay, I need to go. I need to go right now.” But of course, the universe wasn’t done humiliating her yet, because she tripped over his thigh and wound up falling over in his lap. “SHIT. I’m so sorry,” she apologized.

“Hey, it’s alright,” he let out a deep laugh and helped her get up, his touch sending sparks down her body, which was very inappropriate but slightly drunk Rey clearly didn’t give two fucks anymore.

“I um…” she struggled to get the words out, “I, well…I guess, um thank you for your kindness and I’m so sorry if I offended you in any way. I’m, uh, usually not like this.” She stood awkwardly in the aisle and stared down at him, getting a new vantage point and a better look at him for the first time.

Crap, he really was hot. And she really had done a fine job of humiliating herself in front of this hot stranger.

“Like what?” he replied, “drunk or talkative?”

She hummed for a second and then replied, “a little bit of both I think. When I’m drinking, I don’t tend to have the best filter.”

Handsome man stood up next to her and she took a few steps forward, not wanting to make him even more uncomfortable.

“I should go,” she whispered sheepishly, and began to walk away from him, “I have work tomorrow.” She needed to get out of here as fast as possible.

“Ah yes, your ‘joke of a career’ as you put it so nicely.” He called out from behind her, a smirk on his full, beautiful lips.

She shrugged. “Don’t tell my boss!” she hollered.

 _That is if I still have a job tomorrow morning_ , she surprisingly didn’t say that one out loud.

* * *

She didn’t realize until after she had already greeted Armitage at the baggage claim that she had spilled her life story…the greatest and ugliest moments of Rey Kenobi’s life to a total (hot) stranger on a plane…and she never once caught his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE tell me y'all noticed my little jab at JJ. 
> 
> I'm on tumblr @hellostarlight


	3. Don't Tell Anyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey meets someone very important in her company...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok people listen up!  
> ***05/03/20 There were some minor edits made in chapter two regarding some new stuff that our poor girl spilled to the man next to her on the plane!! Please reread them if you read chapter two before the date above^
> 
> It's not a suuper huge deal if you don't reread it, but I think it'll flow better for ya
> 
> Also...happy late birthday to my fantastic beta who is literally the wind beneath my wings with this story!!

Rey wakes up the next morning to muffled voices coming from the living room. She rolls over into her pillow to block out the noise coming through the thin walls of her bedroom. It’s not like she’s not used to it but it’s still rather annoying, each time Rose and Paige get into one of their petty disagreements that usually make no sense. Rey has never had a sister but living with these two sure feels like she had two of them.

She lifts her head slightly to peek over at her alarm clock on the bedside table and groans when she realizes her alarm is destined to go off in less than five minutes. She lays there for a few moments, watching the shadows dance, before deciding she should probably take a shower after last nights’ rather interesting events. She throws her legs over the side of the bed and rubs her face with the back of her hand.

When she picks up her phone off its charger, there’s a text from Finn.

 **Meet me before work?**

She didn’t even need to ask where. They had a spot, so to speak, where they often got together before, and sometimes _during_ work. But that was a secret that she would never tell another living soul, given they would be in an awful lot of trouble if Amilyn ever found out. Finn and Rey were the most inseparable pair at work. He often referred to her as his _work wife_ , even though he was clearly in love with their third wheel, Poe Dameron. 

She replies with, **ugh yes you know I need it, see u at 8:30** and then pulls herself up to her full height and rolls her neck, walking towards the noises out in the hallway where their shared bathroom was located. 

“That is literally the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of, plus you know it makes me uncomfortable when you say things like that!” Rose hollered at her sister from her perch on the couch with her laptop nestled on her thighs, “Now just get over here and pick something otherwise I’m gonna tell mom that you’re not cooperating.”

Rey peaked around the corner at the two sisters and giggled to herself. So, it was one of _those_ fights. 

“Rose, be reasonable here,” the older sister responded from across the room, “it just doesn’t make sense for us to _split_ grandma’s gift because she loves you more, so why should I have to contribute the same as you?” Paige spoke with her mouth full of toast.

Rose made a growling noise and then hurled one of the couch pillows at Paige’s head before continuing, “PAIGE! It doesn’t work like that. Please…just, for once in your life stop being difficult and help me pick something out. Her birthday is in a week, and you know how long it takes with shipping and…”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Fine. I’ll make you a deal.” Paige took one more bite out of her toast before looking her sister directly in the eye.

“I’m listening!” Rose flailed her arms out around her. 

“Sixty/forty?” came her soft reply. 

Just as Rose slammed her computer down on the couch in the space next to her and started to storm her way across the room, Paige conveniently caught Rey’s eye from around the corner.

“Rey bear! Hey, girl what’s up?” Paige managed to get out between Rose’s fits of hitting her with that same pillow she threw moments ago. 

“Just jumping in the shower really quick before I have to meet Finn. But it seems like your morning is far more interesting than mine,” Rey shouted over her shoulder as she turned into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Rose was the one who responded this time. “What’s gonna be interesting is how we’re going to hide her dead body!”

Rey only chuckled and then started the water on the hottest temperature she could get it to and stripped herself of her t-shirt and pajama shorts before stepping into the warm stream.

* * *

“Damn girl. I’m seriously impressed,” he chuckled. 

Rey had just spent the last twenty minutes explaining to him, in great detail, everything that had happened to her within the last twenty-four hours and how bloody cursed she is. The universe was definitely out to get her in some way or another.

“Fiiiinn,” Rey whined, “it’s really not funny. Amilyn is going to kill me. Or worse _fire_ me!”

“Babe, seriously. I don’t think it’s going to be that bad. Maybe she doesn’t even know yet! You could’ve gotten lucky.”

“No, no _NO_! Finn, she called me after the meeting, so she definitely knows.” Rey groaned

“Wait. Wait, hold on. What’d she say?”

_Oh god, here it comes._

She grimaced. “Well…I, um…hah, it’s funny actually because that’s another huge part of my problem. I never answered the phone.”

When he only let out a puff of air in response, she continued to trudge along beside him in her converse and jeans. Honestly one of the best things about working at Falcon was that she didn’t have to dress up every day. The office was very casual when it came to dress code – all things really – and for that she was grateful. 

Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so casual of an environment, when her boss rightfully lost her mind because of her. In front of everyone.

_Shit._

“You know, Finn, I really think that maybe it’s best if I uh, just don’t go in today. Really, maybe I should just go back home, crawl into bed, and pretend this never ever happened.”

When she started to turn around and towards her warm, safe apartment, he caught her by the arm. “Hey, hey, come on now Peanut. You know I’ve always got your back.” He held out his pinky to her. “And that’s a pinky promise. Those _cannot_ be broken.” 

If his words didn’t assure her enough, then his brilliant grin did. She returned his gentle smile with her own pinky and giggled as he pulled her in for one of his signature hugs. He could always make her feel better with one of those, and he knew it. He squeezed her, and she wiggled in his arms. 

“Come on, girl, you’ve got this. Let’s go on in and get it over with and then we’ll celebrate when you still have your job at the end of the day, eh?” 

He pulled her along the sidewalk, his own drink piping hot in his hand. She sighed as they rounded the corner and stood in front of their office building. Rey stood at a standstill. 

“Alright, but you’re funding my heartbreak feast when it all goes sour.” She replied bitterly.

He let out a hearty laugh in return and she squealed, “Finn I’m serious. And I’m talking all the junk food you can imagine,” she mused, “pizza, gummy worms, gummy _bears,_ Swedish fish, ALL of it from your pocket.”

“Rey, honestly. I don’t know how you eat those things. I understand the sugar fetish, and I even agree with the gummy bears but Swedish fish? Nobody eats those, Peanut, they’re disgusting.”

“What no! They’re completely—”

“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to agree with Finn on this one, Rey.” 

They both turned their heads to the left; Poe was standing there, looking rather amused at their conversation. 

Rey was the first to speak, seeing that Finn was too awestruck to breathe, let alone hold a conversation. “How long have you been standing there?”

Poe laughed, “Aha, long enough to know that you eat _Swedish fish_? Seriously, those things will kill you. I read an article once you know, and–”

“I’m done with this conversation. I’ll catch up with you two later.” Rey took a giant swig of her coffee and turned to wink at Finn before she made her way into the building, where she hoped the kriffing elevator was functioning. 

The office was hectic. Her nose scrunched up in disgust, the sharp scent wafting through the air was like someone went a little too crazy with the Lysol. It seemed like every employee was participating in some way, men in the lobby literally rearranging the furniture and fluffing the decorative pillows like The Queen was coming.

Falcon was usually extremely laid back. The brick walls and open environment typically allowed for open collaboration between teams. The walls to the cubicles were short and could easily be reached over from person to person, which was good for communication. But it also tended to be on the messier side, slightly littered with empty water bottles and leftover muffins in the middle of the room where the table stood, unofficially labeled, the “junk pile”. But today was a completely different story. The whole place was shining from top to bottom. And there were these random little potted plants everywhere. 

_What the hell is going on?_

Apparently, she wasn’t alone in her curiosity. Finn and Poe caught up with her, they both verbally expressed their confusion. 

“Ben Solo is coming,” Armitage approached them and motioned over towards the window to look down on the street where a black sleek car was pulling over to the curb, the driver opening his door.

“Wait, who?” Rey asked her boyfriend, even more confused than before, “Why is everyone making such a fuss?”

“Well he only co-founded the company you work for, darling.” Armie responded to her, his arms crossing over his chest.

 _No need for the attitude, darling_ she thought to herself snidely. 

“Wait _the_ Ben Solo?” Poe piped in, “I thought he had like a huge breakdown, went…well ya know” He was circling his pointer finger up by his temple, sucking in a breath.

Finn returned his shock. “Well, looks to me like he’s back in the game.”

Rey never got the chance to take a glance down at their boss as he got out of the car because someone was calling her name in the distance, and it sounded a lot like Amilyn. A lot like the woman who was about to decide her fate. She took a sharp intake of breath and shut her eyes.

_Oh god oh god oh god oh god._

“Be strong, babe. Good luck!” Finn whispered from behind her as she headed over towards Amilyn. She was leaning up against the short brick barrier that separated Rey’s desk from the rest of the room. 

“Hey there,” her voice pitched up about two octaves too high, “how’s it going?”

Amilyn was very good at speaking with her eyes, and Rey was afraid to meet them. She didn’t want to see _and_ hear her supervisor’s disappointment in her. She looked up to Amilyn as a mentor. She was a great boss, and a powerful woman. She helped Rey get to where she is today. And she’ll also be deciding if Rey will get to keep the job that she lined up for her when she came fresh out of university. 

“Help me understand something here, Rey.” She started off, surprisingly calm, “I was surprised yesterday received a phone call from the personal secretary of the CEO of First Order Enterprises.”

“Oh?” Rey squeaked back at her, meekly. 

Then her voice started to escalate by the second. “Yes, imagine my surprise and _terror_ when I heard the recount in very precise detail of what happened during your presentation. Did you _seriously_ pour a drink on James Snoke, Rey? Is this some kind of psychotic break I’m dealing with here?”

It certainly felt like a psychotic break. Or definitely like she was on the verge of one.

“Please, Amilyn. It was an accident. I was um, like, gesticulating and I, well I was just super passionate about the product.” She was motioning her hand trying to copy exactly what she was doing in the heat of the moment with Snoke, but as she watched her boss’ horrified expression she realized too late that she was quite literally wanking the air with her fist.

Amilyn raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I see. And were you doing _that_ in the meeting? Because I can see how that would, quite literally, turn off a client from us, Rey. Oh, for fuck’s sake stop doing that with your hand!”

Now that drew some attention. All of the background chatter had ceased and every pair of eyes in the room was on them. Rey jerked her fist back down to her side and wiped her sweaty palm on her jeans. Humiliated in front of the entire office, full of people she has to face every day, is decidedly worse than in front of a board room full of strangers. She was pretty sure that given by her itchy neck, she had definitely broke out a nervous tomato rash.

She tore her eyes away from all the painful stares and whispered, “But I promise it was an accident. I would never violate a potential client like that I swear to you, or dream of disrespecting you or this company and I–”

Amilyn sighed. “Just clean up your desk.”

_Fuck._

“What! You’re actually firing me? No, no, please don’t I—”

“Rey, learn to listen. I said clean _up_ , not _out_.” Rey stood there, too stunned to move, not quite believing her ears. “Ben Solo will be here in a few minutes. And I’m letting it go this time, but if you spill Kessel Coffee on _him,_ then we will be revisiting this conversation. OH, just for future reference, when your boss calls you after an important meeting, just answer the damn phone."

Amilyn finally turned away and Rey finally let out the breath she had been holding. So, she wasn’t fired. Humiliated, but not fired. Halle-fucking-lujah. What a turn of fate that was. She threw a glance over to Finn, who was now sitting in his own desk adjacent to hers. He gave her a huge thumbs up, but she didn’t feel the same level of enthusiasm. She was just grateful she hadn’t lost her only source of income.

“Okay, everyone. Listen up!” Amilyn was pacing the room, her lavender curls bouncing with each steady stride she took, “This is an informal visit, so I don’t want any panic. Mr. Solo will come in, maybe talk to a few of you. Nothing more. Just act normal, please. Don’t be weird or do anything not safe for work…Rey.” She didn’t need to look up to catch the stern gaze that was aimed at her.

_Really? Was that necessary?_

Rey groaned and plopped down in her chair, stuffing all her various notes stuck to the desk in the top drawer. They were all filled with what would not qualify as work related but were very important in the organized chaos that was Rey Kenobi’s pathetic existence. Most were to-do notes that never got checked off completely, or grocery lists that she had left at work without realizing until she made it to the store. Shit like that. 

“Not a great meeting for ya, was it there, Rey? Better luck next time,” Gwen clicked her tongue at her from her computer two desks over. 

“Woah, savage.” Armie laughed from around the corner where Rey didn’t even see him hiding. Rey gave him a look that suggested he should shut the hell up.

“Really, Hugs, you would think you could stand up for your girl a little better. Maybe if you get your head out of your ass then you could–” Poe started to defend Rey, but Amilyn cut him off. 

“Okay, guys. He’s on the floor. Go about your daily tasks.” She motioned with her hands dramatically, ushering people to their workspaces. “Now!”

Rey mouthed a short ‘thank you’ to Poe. It was because of him and Finn alone that she enjoyed coming to work every day. It’s not like her arsehole boyfriend contributed to the pleasantness of the workspace. Sometimes she wondered where in all his years of boarding schools and private universities, he learned his bloody manners. Princeton might’ve given him his financing skills, but they certainly didn’t accredit him the ability to be a decent fucking human. 

There were loud and heavy footsteps coming from the center of the room and Amilyn’s voice once again projected, this time a little bit less intimidating and more welcoming. She held her arms out and a very large man walked into them. 

_Hmm._ _Didn’t realize they knew each other so well._ Rey rolled her eyes, not wanting to listen to her boss kiss her CEO’s butt all day. 

“Ben! Welcome back.” Then she clapped her hands high above her head, “people, can I have your attention please? It is my pleasure and honor to introduce the man who influenced and inspired an entire generation of marketers. A founding father of this company, Ben Solo.”

Applause erupted, and since it would probably be polite to look up from her computer, where she was doing absolutely nothing, Rey lifted her eyes and was greeted with the best and worst news of her life.

The beautiful stranger. 

The man she had unnecessarily spilled her complete life story to, on the plane; whilst being in an immeasurable state of absolute panic, was now standing in front of her. And he was her kriffing boss. Her _boss’ boss_ actually. Of all places in Chicago for that man to go after that flight from hell landed, he had to be the fucking CEO of the company she just bitched about working for. 

_Shit._

She tried to avoid his eyes, but she was too late. His warm, honey gaze had already caught her, and if she thought she was red before, she was certainly wrong. Because her entire face felt like it was being licked by flames in that moment. It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Just him and her remained. She knew her mouth was wide open and it looked very unattractive, but she was frozen under his spell. His confusion was palpable for a brief second, and he searched her face for a sign that she was who he thought. But she knew there was no way for her to hide from him now. 

He tore his eyes from her and returned his attention back to Amilyn after the noise in the room had died. Rey squeaked out a noise of complete disbelief and ducked down, suddenly very interested in the legs of her chair. As she visibly hid her body from the most beautiful and now also, _terrifying_ man she had ever laid eyes on. She said a silent prayer that he did in fact, not remember her outburst from yesterday and that it was just a fluke accident that he just spent the last ten seconds gazing into her soul. Her dirty conscience. 

“Peanut,” Finn whisper-shouted at her from his own chair, “what the hell are you doing?” 

Rey shushed her best friend and seriously tried not to cry as she heard her airplane boyfriend – _goddammit stop it, his name is Ben Solo and he’s also your superior –_ thank Amilyn and everyone in the room. Then there were footsteps. Coming closer and closer until his very large feet came into her vision and rested inches from her face.

“And who’s this?” his deep voice said, his tone playful.

“Ah this is Rey Keno...” Amilyn trailed off, clearing her throat. “Uh, Rey Kenobi. One of our junior marketing assistants. Rey, are you okay down there?”

Knowing that she had a tendency to be slightly clumsy, one would think that Rey would’ve gently risen her head from underneath her desk as to not cause a ruckus; but of course in true Rey-fashion, she panicked and rose too quickly from her desk, banged the back of her skull on the bottom of her hardwood desk. 

“Shit. Fuck. Dammit.” She clutched her head in pain, letting her hair fall in front of her face. 

He chuckled. “Hey there, Rey.”

She dropped her voice and muffled out, “Hello, Mr. Solo. It’s very nice to meet you,” raising her right hand to meet his in a handshake. She pretended that she didn’t shiver at how warm and _soft_ his touch was. 

“It’s nice to meet you too,” he mused back at her.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Rey, show the man who you are,” Amilyn chuffed at Rey. Chuckling nervously, she moved her hair back behind her left ear. 

She rubbed at the back of her neck, and grimaced when she reached the zone that just took a hit. Her vision seemed a little blurry from the bumping her head, but she could tell that he was still dressed just as casually as he was yesterday on the flight. He was _rocking_ a fitted dark blue cotton t-shirt that was rolled up to his elbows and a pair of jeans that resembled the ones he was wearing the last time she saw him. She hoped she wasn’t drooling. 

“Now, Rey, what is it exactly that you do?” Ben Solo asked her.

She steadied her voice, “Um...I work in the marketing department.”

_Obviously, you kriffing moron. That’s what junior marketing assistant means._

Oh my god. This could not get any worse.

“Rey was just in New York on business,” Amilyn made eyes at her but her kind tone was directed at Mr. Solo, “we try to give our junior staff responsibilities as early as possible.” She smiled at him. 

“Wow, that’s excellent. Very good. Um..I could really use some coffee.” He directed his attention back to Rey as she took a very large gulp from her latte. “How’s the coffee here?”

At first, she thought it was strange that he ask her something so mundane. She honestly figured that he would out her immediately and tell Amilyn that she had a psycho terrorist doing business for her. But instead all he does is ask her about the _coffee?_ Which by the way is absolutely horrendous, but not that she can tell…him…that.

_Oh shit._

Forget spilling coffee all over her boss’ boss. What about almost spitting it out all over the desk in front of him?!

“It’s…uh, it’s great,” Rey choked, “it’s…truly delicious.” She was brave enough to meet his eyes again and he was smirking at her, trying not to laugh. She didn’t even bother to tell him that her drink was from the coffee shop around the corner. Fuck, he probably already knew and was just messing with her trying to get her to break first. 

“That’s great. Good to hear, Rey.”

He turned his attention back to Amilyn, who turned on her heel and _of fucking course_ took him right to Phasma’s desk.

“And this, Ben, is Gwen Phasma. One of our brightest young executives.” Rey almost gagged at that. 

“Sir.” Phasma made her way around her fancy corner cubicle to greet Be – _NO! Mr. Solo_ – to shake his hand. She was nearly as tall as him, especially in her pretentious red pumps that were completely unnecessary for working at Falcon. What was also completely uncalled for was her black-and-white striped crop top and beret on top of her too-big-for-her-body head. 

“Bonjour,” she greeted him, her ‘r’ sound coming out too harsh. 

_Dear god._

Mr. Solo chuckled, “oh! You’re French! Comment vas tu ce matin?” Because of fucking course the man speaks French. 

“Oh, well, I’m two percent,” Gwen replied, shaking her head bashfully.

“Well, I like your spider plant,” he said pointing at her plant next to her computer. At that he turned his head over to Rey slightly and smirked at her. 

_Ah, so he was fucking with her._

And why was he being so nice to Gwen? If he wants to give a recall of everything, she told him on that blasted plane then maybe he should remember that this woman was her sworn enemy!

He bit back a laugh as he turned back to Gwen and said, “it’s um…it looks very healthy.” 

Rey turned away from the scene, too embarrassed to even be breathing right now let alone look on to watch the rest of this scene unfold. 

“Wow, thank you, sir.” Gwen said in astonishment. 

_Kiss arse_ , Rey thought to herself. 

Armitage was standing next to Gwen during Ben Solo’s interaction with her, so of course he was going to introduce himself next, much to Rey’s chagrin. 

“Mr. Solo, very nice to meet you sir. I am Armitage Hux.” Armie was shaking his hand a little too violently when Poe broke the awkwardness and shouted out at him.

“Alright, back off a little, Hugs, don’t want to scare the boss man off!”

Nobody laughed except Rey, who wanted more than anything to escape this nightmare she was in. But it only got worse when Ben Solo opened his big beautiful mouth and responded to Armie, who was glaring at Poe. 

“Oh, Armitage, is it? A family name?” he asked, a smile on his lips. 

Anyone watching would’ve just assumed that Mr. Solo was a nice man making polite conversation with his employee. That’s what it looked like. A harmless interaction with no maliciousness behind it. But Rey knew that he was making fun of her. She really, really wanted to die. Her head hurt, and she was almost out of coffee. Ben Solo was only making things worse.

No matter how pissed she was at him for his little comment earlier, she truly felt bad for her boyfriend. He had no idea that Ben Solo did not actually care that ‘Armitage’ was, in fact, a family name. And that nobody cared that he was named after his great great uncle who died in World War II. 

But Ben Solo was having a field day with it, and entertained Armie’s every word with a smile and an acknowledgement. 

“Well, I think it’s a splendid name. You know the Urban Dictionary defines it as, well as you Brits call it, ‘wanking in the shower’,” he laughed, “but what do I know? Good to meet you, man!” He clapped him on the back and made his way around the room.

Is that seriously what ‘Armitage’ means? Oh my god, that’s kriffing hilarious. But _how on earth did Ben Solo know that?_

Armie just stared at him, too shocked to even mutter out a response to Mr. Solo. Rey was apparently glued to her seat too, because she almost missed his heated gaze directed right at her as he announced to the whole room that he would be ‘looking forward to getting to know everyone better’. 

_What you don’t already know about them_ , she internally groaned. 

“I’ll show you to your office, Ben.” Amilyn directed him to the temporary workspace that he would be occupying for however long he decided to stay and torture her.

“Au revoir!” Gwen hollered after them as they headed down the long hallway towards his new den.

“Phasma.” Finn said, “You’re from Pittsburgh.”

If looks could kill Finn would not be giggling like a schoolgirl right now, high-fiving Poe in response to his interaction against Gwen, that has her pouting at her desk. 

He would be miserable and in pain, just like Rey. 

She really wishes that she had never met Ben Solo on that flight from New York. Maybe then he would be her handsome, yet very professional boss. He wouldn’t be her hot and sexy dirty little airplane secret that indiscreetly flirted with her every chance he could. Maybe then she would be able get through five minutes of actual work without having to stop and internally reprimand herself for her growing and _very_ inappropriate feelings towards him. 

But that’s just not how Rey’s luck worked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again if you read chapter two before 05/03/20 then please go back and read the edit that I made. Go catch some more juicy details that our sexy mystery man gets to listen to ;)
> 
> also I DID NOT make that up about the Urban Dictionary. I'm dead ass serious guys. When i found that I couldn't stop laughing for like six minutes straight lmao
> 
> follow me on tumblr! @hellostarlight


	4. Just Another Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some strong pep talks from pals and an even stronger (and awkward) bond building between Rey and her new boss...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys sorry for the wait! I’m officially done with finals now so hopefully I’ll have more time to write, but I also might just turn into an extra PROcrastinator, we’ll see. Good thing I have the best beta around to keep me in line :) 
> 
> Thanks for your super fast editing skills, Liv!

Rey sat eating her Nutella and banana sandwich in silence, listening to Poe and Finn compliment each other on the good things that their respective departments, marketing and financing, are doing for the Resistance. It’s an account that Falcon has been working with for years, long before she had started working there, and her two best friends frequently collaborate with the senior executives from the other company. She jokingly refers to them as co-generals whenever they get into deep conversation about how passionate they are for the mission Falcon and Resistance were working towards.

_Health and wellness._

It was cute really, how much those two flirted, without actually realizing that the other was totally head over heels. No matter how many times Rey had tried to convince Finn that Poe was into him as deeply as Finn was into Poe, he just wouldn’t buy it. Even though they were so fricking adorable, it was slightly annoying that neither of them would make the first move. Sometimes she wishes she could just do it for them, but Rey was a good friend and she wouldn’t dare reveal Finn’s secret crush. Not even to handsome strangers on a plane.

“What do you think, Rey?” Poe broke her from her thoughts.

“Hmm, uh what?” she said, as she was finishing her last bite of her delicious sandwich that she does not regret, even if Armie makes fun of her for it.

Poe chuckled at her obliviousness, “We were just talking about the big boss man coming to town. What’s your first impression?”

“He’s umm, he seems pretty cool I guess,” she blinked at him slowly, “he looked like a nice guy to me.”

Finn laughed loudly and then looked at her directly, “yeah and somebody I know definitely thinks he looked more than,” he air-quoted, “nice”. And I would even go as far and say that he felt the same given his heated gazes.”

 _Shit._ He knew her too well.

“Oh please, Finn. I absolutely do not think—” Rey immediately started denying what he was saying.

He made a noise, “Hey now, Peanut. I didn’t mention any names, that’s all on you,” he raised his hands above his head, surrendering sarcastically.

She groaned and put her head in her hands. Her headache was still reverberating from her embarrassing interaction with him this morning. She felt so stupid. So maybe it was true, that her boss’ boss might make her blush red like a stop sign, but that absolutely did not mean anything serious. Just because she reveled in the fact that he was a flirt doesn’t mean that she plans on reciprocating! He’s hot. So what! That doesn’t mean she’s going to fantasize about what else those big hands are capable of besides sudoku puzzles…

_Right?_

Besides, it didn’t even matter that Ben Solo was decidedly attractive because she had a boyfriend, and Rey Kenobi was very loyal in relationships. She told the guys as such.

There was absolutely no reason to be feeling guilty.

“Yeah, but come on,” Poe began, “you know very good and well that the only reason that you started going out with that baby carrot in the first place was because a one-night-stand accidentally turned into a friends with benefits type thing.”

Finn rolled his eyes and then piped in, “and then he told the whole office that you guys were dating so you—”

“YES! Oh my god, I know the story. Very well actually. I’ve been living in it for seven months.” She huffed and then continued, “I just felt bad for him, you know? He genuinely thought that I was his girlfriend, I guess, even though we never discussed it. I just couldn’t embarrass him like that in front of everyone. And now I’m stuck in this relationship and I don’t know what to do.” She massaged her aching temple.

Stuck in her personal _and_ professional life. What a lovely coincidence.

“Right, because we all know you’re not staying in it for the sex,” Poe remarked and then cracked up laughing right along with Finn, who was slapping his knee because apparently her life was just so kriffing hilarious. She now wishes she had never confessed about her less than exceptional sex life. They teased her relentlessly, and that’s why they now referred to Armie as ‘baby carrot’ behind his back.

“Okay, but seriously Rey,” Finn rubbed at her shoulder gently with his thumb, “Boss man was making some major fuck me eyes at you this morning, that’s all I’m saying. Just be careful. I don’t want you to get too involved emotionally and then end up brokenhearted.”

She reached up to put her hand on top of his and looked into his eyes. When she saw that he was genuinely trying to protect her, she sighed in defeat. She needed to tell him. She was never very good at keeping things from Finn. He was like her big brother.

“Yeah, well there’s probably something I need to tell you before you guys get too far off into worrying that I could ever be anything with Ben Solo,” she muttered, “Finn, remember how I briefly mentioned to you that drunk me got a little too chatty with the hot guy on the plane yesterday?” Rey bit at her bottom lip, the nervousness creeping out into her worst habit.

“Yeah, that was cringey as hell, but what does that have to do with Solo?” he asked, actually concerned.

Rey puffed out a breath of air and settled both hands in her lap. “He um, Mr. Solo is the one from the uh, plane.” She professed with her eyes down, very intently focused on the ants making a picnic of her breadcrumbs.

Finn pushed his chair back dramatically and shouted, “He WHAT?” Then he started pacing around their small table on the outside balcony, “You’re telling me that the quote ‘delicious dude’ on your plane ride from hell is BEN SOLO!”

“Stop screaming,” she shushed him, “someone could hear you. But yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. And unfortunately, I don’t think he was making fuck me eyes because he’s attracted to me, Finn. He was probably just taking in the sight of the crazy woman that he thinks stalked him from the airport! He might be in his office right now thinking of some elaborate punishment for me.”

If she felt conflicted about her feelings before, then she doesn’t know what this new one is but it’s decidedly worse. Agonizing, even. She had been feeling guilty that a small part of her really wanted to believe that he was flirting with her through his little banter this morning. But now that she’d spoken it out loud, maybe his friendly teasing was just that. Friendly. He was not amused with her at all.

 _What a kriffing idiot_ , she chided herself.

“Woah hold on a minute. I’m seriously so confused right now. What’s going on here?” Poe questioned her.

Rey and Finn take turns catching Poe up on Rey’s very embarrassing first meeting with their boss. They try to disclose everything to him as briefly as possible so they could get back to the real issue at hand and when they’re finally done, he sags down into his chair, completely stunned.

“Wait,” he held his pointer finger up, “so you’re telling me that you drunkenly revealed half of your life story to this man on an airplane…uh, why exactly? Nobody actually explained that part.”

“Because I thought we were gonna die, Poe! There was some bad turbulence and I just got scared so I…well, I kinda just…look that’s not the point, the new major problem here is that even though Amilyn didn’t fire me for what happened in New York, Ben Solo has bigger reasons to punish me for what I said to him!” Rey explained, trying to understand how exactly her life had come to this.

“But he was so nice to you this morning. Finn said it, with the whole ‘fuck me’ eyes thing. I witnessed the whole scenario and I seriously didn’t think that anything was going on below the surface of his words other than some intense flirtation,” Poe proposed, “so maybe he doesn’t have any malicious intentions. I mean it’s not like you _knew_ he was your boss.”

Poe Dameron is not one to talk about ‘intense flirtation’ given that he can barely get two words out that aren’t complimentary whenever Finn is around. But she’s not going to say that out loud.

“That’s actually really helpful in boosting my confidence because,” she pumped her fist in the air weakly, “I’m going confront him later today. Go me,” Rey expressed.

“Umm, no. As your best friend and self-appointed protector, I absolutely cannot allow you to do that. Poe’s probably right that Solo doesn’t want to punish you, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t go absolutely terribly. I saw how you reacted this morning, Peanut, and trust me, nobody wants a repeat of that situation. Especially now that we’ve collectedly decided that he’s just as into you as you are him.”

Rey looked at him pointedly. “I’m definitely choosing to ignore that last part. But look, this is strictly professional. Amilyn said I had to submit a budgeting draft for Kessel to him by the end of the day. She said it shows him I’m responsible and whatever. It’s not like I’m choosing to go to him on my own. I haven’t completely lost my mind…” she mumbled towards the end.

“…yet.” Finn uttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for her to hear.

“Hey!” she punched him in the arm for his candor.

“Just be careful, okay?” Poe chimed back in, defending Finn, “we care about you and want what’s best for you.”

She stood and pushed her chair from the table, collecting the remains of her lunch that she didn’t finish. “I know,” she said, groaning, “but there’s a line between me and him, and I won’t cross it. Professional boundaries and all that.”

“So… is this ‘line’ imaginary, or should I get you a marker?” Poe teased her with no real heat behind his words.

“Ha. Ha. You’re so funny. But seriously, I really should get back to it. I do have a proposal to hand deliver by the end of the day.”

“Go get him, girl!” Finn hollered after her as she headed back towards the door.

“But not literally!” Poe added.

She just smiled and rolled her eyes, then pushed the door open with her hip, depositing her leftovers into the metal can before stepping inside.

* * *

Rey yawned and stretched her arms over her head, checking the clock that hung on the wall to her left. It was nearly time to leave. Others around her had already started to gather their belongings and slowly make their way towards the lobby leading to the lift. She is usually just like them, anxiously waiting to get out of here. But today is different because she owes Ben Solo a copy of a newly drafted budget, something that Amilyn asked her to ‘take a look at’ after her conversation with First Order Enterprises.

She groaned as she _finally_ finished the blasted thing that only took her six hours to complete. It was obvious that Amilyn was giving her another shot, a different and perhaps better shot at proving herself, and she should be grateful…but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t out of her professional comfort zone, since she didn’t usually provide budget drafts. She would usually turn to Finn, who is an actual financial advisor, and knew what he was doing when it came to budgeting. He had no problem helping her, it was literally his job description, after all. But she knew that she had to conquer this herself otherwise it wouldn’t feel right. Besides, Finn was now part of the herd crowding at the lobby.

After clicking the print button on the screen Rey stood up and put her coat on, shaking out her foot that had fallen asleep, after hours of sitting on it. She gathered the rest of her things that she brought with her that day and stuffed them in her purse, or the _endless pit of junk_ as Rose so lovingly referred to her oversized bag.

Ben’s – _ugh, Mr. Solo’s_ – corner office was at the end of the longest hallway on the floor, and there were huge glass window panes leading the way. The sun was setting deep into the Chicago skyline, the orange hue casting warm shadows onto the floor. Armed with her freshly printed papers and what little pride she had left, Rey walked the very short distance to find Mr. Solo’s door swung wide open. His deep voice carried out into the corridor, and she assumed he was on the phone.

_YES!_

If he was on a call, whether it be personal or business related, then she was saved! She could just knock on his door gently and awkwardly, set her printed report down on the nearest flat surface and then bolt. It’s not like it would be rude or anything. He was busy.

“What bloody perfect timing,” she squealed under her breath.

Just as she was about to carry out her genius plan, his calm tone escalated. He was almost shouting but he was definitely trying to hide it, probably aware of the people that still mingled in the office. She stopped short, not quite wanting to barge in on whatever – or whoever – he was dealing with, but she was suddenly very curious as to why he was so wound up.

Naturally, she pressed her ear closer to the voices, still hidden behind the outside wall.

 _This isn’t creepy at all_ , her inner monologue piped in.

“No, it’s not that and you know it” He sounded exasperated, “You know that I want to be there, but I can’t be at two places at once…No, we discussed this. I have to be here permanently now if we want this to work…Yes, she knows now and she won’t say anything…”

_Oh. So this wasn’t just a quick visit like Amilyn had said? Great._

A pause, and some muffled arguing from the other person on the other end of the line.

He sighed, and his voice cracked with emotion, “I know. I wish we had more time too, but I’m trying the best I can to figure things out…” he trailed off.

Wow. It sounded like whatever he was dealing with was serious, and definitely not business related, not with the way he was letting all that emotion creep into his voice. Rey should not be eavesdropping on this private conversation he was in the middle of with his…girlfriend? Wife? There’s no way that a man that looks like that is not taken in some form or another.

But it was too late. Because just as she was about to politely reveal her presence like a normal and functioning human being, her fucking cell phone started ringing at the bottom of her purse. Because of course it did. She cursed the moment she had turned her sound on to watch that snapchat video from Kaydel a few hours ago. There’s a fricking reason she always kept it on vibrate.

She cursed and started digging through various receipts, scrunchies, and snack wrappers in search of the very loud source of Nicki Minaj playing through her phone speaker. Her precious report was most likely crinkling in her hands, but she paid no mind to that when she finally managed to grasp the lock button and consequently silence Nicki.

Solo definitely knew she was there now, because Rey could hear him trying to end his conversation. “Yes, okay. Fine. I promise I’ll call you back,” then the three-note sound of his call dropping.

He cleared his throat at what she presumed was her, so she peaked her head around the corner, keeping her body mainly out of his view. Ben was sitting at his desk with his head resting in his left fist and his eyes sparkling mischievously.

“Hey,” he called to her from his plush desk chair, leaning back and crossing his foot over his other.

Rey swallowed and stepped further into the room. “Hi,” she replied sheepishly.

The room was bare for the most part. There were a few failed advertising projects that Amilyn had strung up haphazardly on the walls, trying to pass them off as décor, but other than that the big corner office was pretty boring. The deep mahogany desk took up at least half the surface area of the room and there were two wooden chairs sitting in front of it. She took a seat in one of them, right across from Mr. Solo.

She clicked her tongue and straightened out her stack of numbers, desperate for this conversation to go smoothly.

“Are those for me?” he pointed, forcing her to look him in the eyes. His beautiful eyes.

 _Whiskey and honey_.

She willed herself to focus, but his smirk was making it difficult. “Oh…um, yes they are. For Kessel. Amilyn asked me to get it to you.” He reached for the report in her hands and started scanning through it mindlessly.

“I know. I asked for you personally.” He replied without looking up.

_Wait, what?!_

That is certainly not what she was expecting. Rey blinked at him in surprise, but then she remembered that Ben Solo had made it his personal mission to tease her endlessly. Bait her along for a little bit, charm her with his wit and then probably fire her. She was hook, line, and sinker. And all he had to do was smirk that beautiful smolder.

She decided to not ask him what he meant by his little ‘asked for you personally’ comment, because it was not, definitely not appropriate for a woman in a relationship to entertain the idea of her boss asking personal favors of her. Even if she felt trapped and miserable in said relationship. She also pretended like she wasn’t imagining _other_ personal favors she wouldn’t mind doing for him, because that would be crossing the line she told Finn and Poe about earlier. But his exposed forearms were making it really difficult to concentrate.

Rey made a half giggle, half choked noise and started to fiddle with the leather strap of her purse. Ben Solo was humming as he fingered through her work, but she could tell he wasn’t truly taking the time to study it. Perhaps he is feeling as awkward as she is, and he’s trying to pass the time.

“So…” she broke the tension in the room.

He snickered at her, then set the draft aside. She had his full attention now. “So…”

“What a coincidence, huh?” Rey remarked, trying to keep her voice steady. She truly didn’t plan on bringing up their first meeting, but sitting alone with him in his office, she felt like she owed him something. Whether it be an explanation, an excuse, or an apology she wasn’t sure. Probably a hearty combination of all three.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you again,” he insisted, his eyes dancing mischievously. When she didn’t respond he started to tease her, “You know, it’s crazy. I know you had revenge in mind, but I think you caused some serious growth in that spider plant. That thing is _monster_ sized.”

Rey could think of a few other things that were probably monster sized, but she kept that to herself and scrunched her nose up in a grimace, “Yeah about that, Ben…Solo... _Mr. Solo_ …”

_God, this is not going well._

She took a deep breath and continued. “In my defense, I had no idea who you were. I never would have acted so inappropriately had I known that you were actually…who you were. Um, so I don’t think that I should be peen-alized.” She defended, her ‘e’ sound dragging out.

“You don’t think I should penalize you?” he reflected back at her and leaned forward so that his weight now rested on his elbows in front of him.

“Oh, is that how you pronounce it?” she asked him, surprised, “pen…penalty?”

Ben Solo didn’t laugh at her, but he was definitely amused by her _fucking stupidity._ “Yeah. It’s like the PENalty flag,” he emphasized his words, “not the ‘PEENalty’ flag.”

“Right, yes of course. Now that I’m hearing it out loud I get that ‘peenalized’ sounds like penis, which is…completely…inappropriate,” she smacked her lips and groaned an apology as Ben chuckled at her.

“Hey, neither of us are wrong.” Solo spoke with his hands helping him to validate his point. “That’s the beauty of the English language right. Tomato, tomato,” he said messing around with his vowels.

“You’re gonna fire me now. Please don’t fire me! I’m gonna like—”

“Rey,” he said calmly, “I’m not going to fire you.”

Her smile of relieve was so bright that she could feel her cheeks cramp, “Great. Yes, thank you so much. From now on I promise to act like the professional that I am.”

“I do have a favor to ask, though.”

_Oh._

“Yeah, yeah. What is it?” she questioned nervously.

He let out a long breath and sat back, resting his hands on the arms of the chair. “I would uh, really like it if nobody knew that I was in New York. Do you think we could keep that between us?” He sounded genuinely concerned.

Panic flooded her. She had already confessed to Finn and Poe about what had happened yesterday, so it’s not like she could promise to keep that detail completely to herself. But he didn’t need to know that. Plus, she had already made them swear to keep it between themselves, and she knew she could trust them with anything. She would just have to not tell anyone else.

“Yes, of course. Your secret is safe with me. I pinky promise, and that is not something that you can break once it’s made,” she repeated Finn’s words to her from this morning.

_Not entirely a lie…_

“I feel very safe,” he chuckled.

“But the same goes for you though. Don’t uh…everything I told you was…”

“Personal?” he answered for her, and she nodded. “Dies with me. To the grave.” He held his pinky out to her and raised an eyebrow. Rey smiled at him and locked her pinky with Ben’s, pretending that she didn’t feel the electricity in his touch.

When she pulled away, she broke the silence between them. “We’re both dying with each other’s dirty secrets now.”

“Yes, we are indeed.” He agreed with her, the amusement clear in his voice at her choice of words.

“That’s quite intimate,” Rey cleared her throat, and then stood abruptly, wishing she hadn’t said that. She felt herself being pulled closer and closer to the boundary line that she promised Finn existed between her and Ben.

 _Strictly professional_ , she reminded herself.

But right as she made it to her exit, he called after her. “So, you’ve really never been in love?”

She was so grateful that her back was facing him so he couldn’t see the painfully twisted expression she wore. Rey exhaled sharply and turned around, “Did I say that?” she played dumb, “I don’t uh…I don’t recall. You know that nobody on this whole kriffing planet really knows what love is, am I right? It’s, uh… it’s a complicated thing, love is.” She slapped her legs with her hands and rocked back and forth on her toes, wishing she could just die. Ben didn’t chide her for ignoring his question, nor did he show any expression of annoyance for her beating around the bush. He just nodded and let it go, thankfully sensing her discomfort with the subject of love.

“Here, I’ll walk you out,” he called again as she tried to escape once more. He was now gathering his belongings and shutting his workspace down for the day. He walked her out of his office and she was eternally grateful that everyone had left already, save for a few stragglers in the corner, but they weren’t paying attention to them.

She didn’t know what to say, so she pressed her lips together tightly to prevent something stupid from tumbling out of her mouth. He followed her through the winding maze of desks towards the elevator and pressed the down button. They waited in silence for the small ding and he gestured for her to enter first.

_Such a gentleman._

It was so quiet that she could hear him breathing. In turn, she prayed to every deity out there that he couldn’t sense how fast her heart was racing in her chest. She literally had no reason to be so nervous around him, and yet she couldn’t help but feel a certain giddy energy. His aura was bright and intense, but so warm and inviting. She wanted to tuck herself against him for comfort.

Rey turned her eyes up at him, but kept her body facing forward, trying not to arouse his suspicion that she was checking him out. Because she totally was. Ben Solo had the most beautiful hair she had ever seen, not just on a man, but any living being. She sniffed the air gently and kriffing hell, he smelled just as good as he did yesterday when they were in close proximity to each other. She wanted to bathe in whatever cologne or deodorant he used because it was delicious. There were gorgeous constellations of moles dotting his face and neck that she wanted to map out with her lips, her tongue, her teeth…

 _The line!_ She checked herself.

When they finally reached the ground floor, she cleared her throat and politely wished _Mr. Solo_ a good night.

“Ben is fine. I think we’ve earned ourselves a first name basis, yeah?” he responded to her as they both stepped out into the chilly night air.

“Yes, I think that’s alright,” she answered, surprised at how calm and level her voice sounded.

“Goodnight, Rey.” He smiled brightly at her and Rey was once again awestruck at his beauty. She stood captivated by him and watched his cold breath dancing in the breeze.

 _Dimples_ , she grinned to herself when she finally turned and broke away from him, _he has dimples._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I really hope you guys are liking it, and PLEASE let me know what you think. The support keeps me going!!  
> I promise the next chapter will be longer (...and you won't have to wait as long for it!)


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